Beating the Panthers – Two Keys

First and foremost, if the Panthers are effective running the ball this game is un-winnable.

Harry will be running with Olsen a bunch, taking him out of the box on a number of plays.

I trust the DEs and OLBs to hold the edge and punish Cam when he keeps it on the read option.

But if Whitaker finds room up the middle Carolina will be able to open up the whole playbook.

So I’m looking at Stephen and more importantly Johnson to do their jobs next to Joseph, who will be consistently doubled on running plays. Shamar and Tom MUST Hold the Fort in the middle to allow the Defense to shut down the run and make Newton one dimensional.

On Offense it’s Boone. Why? Fusco will get help from Berger a lot against Short, maybe the best pass rushing DT in the League.

Kyle and Morgan and others will spend time at the Line helping Clemmings against Ealy. Sam will be paying attention to Smith vs. Johnson on his non blind side.

But if Boone is allowing pressure from Star Ladghlutwxhlt or however it’s spelled Bradford is going to have real problems.

Interior pressure bothers even the very best. Alex must hold his own, on his own,to allow the weaker parts of the Line to use double teams to do theirs.

If Carolina struggles to generate a pass rush from their Base Defense and is forced to blitz it will take either Luke K., or T. Davis out of coverage where they excel and open up the underneath for slants, drag routes, etc., which I expect the Panthers to be sitting on early with no real threat of a running game from Minnesota.

I had this game written in stone as a loss before the season started even with Teddy 3.0 and a supposedly improved O-Line. But Carolina looked surprisingly vulnerable on Defense against the 9ers at home and Minnesota’s Defense has looked better than expected.